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Referendum on Europe

So we are all going to be offered a chance to vote on whether we stay in Europe or come out of the EU are we?

As with so many promises made by so many politicians, it seems to be a case of jam tomorrow.

David Cameron produced some stirring words to tell us all that he wants first to renegotiate this country’s relationship with Europe and, having done so, will give the electorate a chance to express their wishes via a simple “yes-no” vote on staying in the EU.

Well, the vote may appear simple but nothing else does.

For a start, before we can all vote on our destiny we must all consider voting Conservative, or enough of us to get the Tories re-elected in 2015 because there will be no referendum if they’re beaten.

That’s because Labour leader Ed Miliband lost no time in making it crystal clear that there would be no such vote if Labour won the next general election.

He had scarcely said that than his own party fired the first bewildering shot in this saga by shooting him in the foot!

Specifically, he had barely finished speaking before his own party’s advisors were hastily putting a different interpretation on what he’d said, claiming he had not ruled out any possibility of a referendum vote.

So barely a few hours into this political porridge we already have one leader saying one thing and his party apparently saying another.

Miliband accused Cameron of making his clarion call not for the good of the country but because he had been dragged to it by his party, amusingly paralleled by Miliband who claimed to be making his remarks for the good of the country only to be hauled back by his party!

If this has made matters a little misty then we’re all likely to be stumbling about in a veritable peasouper by the time this runs its course.

And what a course that promises to be because, even if the Tories get back in, Cameron said it was likely to be the thick end of five years before a referendum is held.

Personally I feel that one of the key issues has to be the reins of power.

Europe now has a disturbingly large say in our daily lives with the Government of this country finding its powers chipped away at by the continent on an almost daily basis.

That and the pros and cons of trade links and finance will be the battleground.

Weymouth has had its fair share of problems with the faceless gnomes who try to lay down European law from Brussels.

They are just so irritating, convinced that they are the hub of the universe round which we should all revolve.

Bureaucracy is their hallmark and their long-winded pronouncements are usually issued with the sort of misguided reverence reserved for Jeremy Clarkson.

So it was nice to see them get their come-uppance in a recent table of succinctness.

It was pointed out that the Pythagorean theorem only took 24 words, that the Lord’s Prayer is only 66 words, Archimedes’ Principle 67 words, the Ten Commandments just 179 words and the Gettysburg address a mere 286 words.

Even the US Declaration of Independence at 1,300 words and the entire US Constitution with all 27 amendments at 7,818 words are not overly long for the magnitude of the message they convey.

So what world-shattering document took those majestic wordsmiths at the EU a staggering 26,911 words to express?

Well……..it was regulations on the sale of cabbage. Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it, and time to leave the EU if you ask me.